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Talking Cajun by BA Tortuga on 11-July-2016

Author's Interview

Hey y’all. I’m BA Tortuga – writer of rednecks and cowboys and down home folks that manage to fall in love. It’s my thing.

I grew up in northeast Texas, so I heard a lot of Cajun growing up and, I have to admit, the patois fascinated me. Even though both Cajuns and Texans are southern, there are a lot of differences and the culture clash can be intense.

So Adam Taggart tells me. Grins

Landon, my sometimes bullrider, sometimes horse whisperer Cajun has dreamed of safety man Adam Taggart his whole life. Too bad for him that Adam isn’t a fan of magical thinking. Hell, he’s not sure they’re speaking the same language.

I made all y’all a wee Cajun dictionary. Something to help you understand Landon, just a little bit.

Beaucoup: a lot. Beignet: fried square French donut coated with powdered sugar.Bon ami: Good friend.Boolye: Bright light used to blind prey while hunting.Bouder: To pout or sulk. Camp: A vacation home.Catch me: Get for meCher: A term of endearment a la a dear or honey.Come see: Come here.Envie: A longing or hunger to do or eat something. “I got me an envie for some of Mister Beau’s gumbo.” Fais do do: A Cajun dance party. Fifolet: A bright light in the swamp that misdirects or disorient folks.Gris gris To put a curse on someone. Gumbo: African word for okra, which is used as a thickening agent in a dark stew of seafood or meat, served over rice.Honte: Embarrassed or ashamed. Jambalaya: Highly-seasoned mixture of rice, meat and vegetables cooked in one pot.King Cake: Cake decorated with purple, yellow and green sugars and containing a plastic baby (to represent baby Jesus) served throughout the Mardi Gras season. The person who gets the baby buys the next king cake.Laissez les bon temps rouler!: Let the good times roll!Lutin: the spirit of a baby who died before it was baptized and engages in mischievous trick and pranks on the living.Make a Grocery Bill: Go shopping.Me: a secondary possessive to reinforce the primary possessive noun. E.g., “I’m gone to town, me” – meaning “I’m going to town.”Minou: Cat. Parish: A political division resembling counties in other states. Pirogue: A small, canoe.Po po: The police.Pshaw: NonsenseRougarou: Cajun werewolves!Rougarouin’: Getting into trouble; causing trouble.Skiff: Small boat for crabbing or shrimping.Tit: The Cajun equivalent of ‘junior,’ but placed before the name rather than after. “I went drankin’ with Pierre and his boy, Tit Pierre Vay-vay: To talk with friends. Think “to shoot the breeze.” Who dat?: Who is that? Who goes there?

Back to BackLandon knows who he wants, he’s been dreaming about Adam Taggart his whole life. Tag, though? He thinks Landon’s too poor, too young, too wrong to be his.

Landon Gaudet may not be the best bull rider on earth, but he knows that’s where the money is in rodeo. His Cajun heart is more involved with horses, though, and with finding the cowboy he’s been dreaming of all of his relatively short life. Adam Taggart has been around the block more than once, and while he thinks Landon is special, he also thinks the kid deserves better than a safety man with more than his share of notches on the bedpost.

Adam does everything he can to resist Landon, but there’s not a man alive who doesn’t love being loved, so eventually he gives in. Landon can’t believe that Adam is finally with him, that his cowboy has finally come around to his way of thinking. The only problem is that Adam isn’t sure he deserves love, or that he really has any to give. He questions everything from his need for Landon to his family’s assertion that he can do better than a boy from the bayou. Can Landon show Adam that sometimes magic is real, and that all you really need is to have a little faith?